


Do Not Try to Drink the Whole Ocean

by Freedom_Shamrock



Series: Little Secrets [6]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adulting, Aged-Up Character(s), Comfort, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Higher Education, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 23:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15851841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freedom_Shamrock/pseuds/Freedom_Shamrock
Summary: Adrien's physics fellowship news has arrived, and he's kind of terrified what this will mean for him.





	Do Not Try to Drink the Whole Ocean

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the ML Fluff Month day 21 prompt, sickness and in health.
> 
> This is part of my Little Secrets series, and it picks up chronologically some time after "Going Along the Path." While you don't have to read the entire series to get this, there are some finer nuances that will make more sense.

Adrien stared at the thick envelope that had arrived in that day's post. There was a wariness about him that reminded her of the times he'd been alarmed by an akuma's superpowers.

"Are you going to open it?" she asked, watching him war with himself.

He glanced up at her, his eyebrows scrunched in concern.  "Maybe?"

She held back the smirk that wanted to move in on her face. "Maybe?" she asked.  "What are your options, here?"

"I could pretend I never got it?" He shrugged. "Take up baking with your parents and forget about physics as a career choice."

Therapy had done wonders for his self-esteem and his fear of abandonment, but it couldn't fix all the damage his father had inflicted upon him over most of his teen years, not even counting the whole Hawk Moth complication. "How about you open it, and we look at it together to see how we'll handle it."

He nodded sharply, slipping his finger under the flap to ease it open. What was obviously a contract plopped out first, followed not long after by a letter. He picked it up with his fingertips, as if fearing it might bite.  "Oh," he whispered. "Oh! They want me at CERN." He looked up at her, his eyes wide and bright, his smile huge. "Oh, wow. They have the dark matter and supersymmetry studies going on."

"That's wonderful!" She'd loved hearing how excited he was about the projects and scientists at CERN.

His smile faded, and he visibly drooped.

"What is it, Kitty?  What's wrong?" She'd been giving him space, but felt he needed her close now.  She stood next to his chair, her arm around his shoulders.

"I don't want to go." His voice was small, and he stared at the letter without looking at her. "I'd be a fool to think I'd last two days without you."

"You've attended conferences without me," she pointed out.

He shook his head. "Those were a week at most. This…" He looked at the letter, visibly recoiling. "Six months, Mari.  I can't do six months away from you."

She couldn't leave her job, not now that things were really picking up and her designs were getting noticed.  It would be a few years yet before she could strike out on her own, which could be done anywhere, and his career path couldn't wait that long. "It won't be six straight months, Kitty," she promised. "It's what, a three hour train ride from here to there? We can take turns visiting each other on weekends. And you know we'll Skype every night."

He frowned. "My tablet isn't cuddly like you are."

"What are you most worried about?" she asked. She couldn't really help him if she didn't know what was causing this, and her guesses were apparently wide of the mark.

"I don't like being by myself," he said, the words coming slowly.  "I spent so much time alone as a kid… I really hate it. And, Mari, I love you." He turned to look into her eyes with an intensity that was straight out of his Chat Noir playbook. "What if this… what if it makes us grow apart? We've seen it in our friends, and I…" He shook his head. "I don't want that to happen to us. We make me happy. You've given me the best life I could have ever asked for."

"I love you too much for six months to be more than an inconvenience," Marinette said firmly. "We don't have to grow apart."  She climbed into his lap, curling in to him. "We are Ladybug and Chat Noir. We belong together, and you're my Kitty. I adopted you ages and ages ago.  I'm not giving you up."

He burrowed his face into her neck, and she could feel the wet warmth of tears.

"Oh, Kitty," she whispered.  "This should be a celebration."  She kind of wanted to visit Gabriel just to kick the shit out of him for what he'd done to his son, but she was pretty sure Tikki would disapprove.

"I just feel like my future, my potential happy ending is slipping through my fingers like smoke," he mumbled.

"I'm not going to slip through your hands," she promised, patting his hands where he held her. "You're much too clever a hunter for that."

He let out a watery chuckle. "But you know I've never been able to hold you against your will, My Lady."

She squeezed him tightly, then slipped to the floor in front of him, awkwardly kneeling mostly under his desk. "Marry me?" she asked.

He froze, the hands that had been reaching for her, stilled in mid-air. "What?"

"Before your fellowship, marry me." She snatched one of his hands out of the air, caressing it gently. Some might find it rushed, and the timing less ideal, but anyone who knew them wouldn't be surprised. "When I go into work tomorrow, I'll see about switching up my schedule so I can get some long weekends to spend with you in Geneva. They like me, and I'm sure they'll let me mess with my hours, except when we're close to a release."

He dropped to the floor with her, shoving his chair back. "I love you, and you have the best plans." He pulled her into his arms.

"Is that a yes?" she asked, smiling as she snuggled against his shoulder. This hadn't been planned, but it felt right.

He nodded. "Oh yes.  A thousand times, yes."

**Author's Note:**

> 30 minute speed write
> 
> I got home from being out of town and suddenly realized how behind I was on EVERYTHING. I have a novel critique due today, in fact, and I'm completely blowing off a W2 job (fortunately my employer is forgiving). So I am behind on Fluff Month and will not finish today. But I do still have all the prompts plotted out and will complete them in September.
> 
> "It's not like you have to drink the ocean" is a French idiom to note that something isn't that difficult.


End file.
